Sigh ...

So, you've come to ask me about that day too? Did you all not learn about it or something?  

You did?

Ah... ha ha. I see. You came to ask me about how I survived, huh? 

Yea, I see your faces. 

You have no idea how I’m still alive… 

Yea…  

Well…   

Neither do I. 

But also, fuck you. I’m alive as you can see. AND!!!! I'm doing just dandy, thanks for asking. 

It's fine, I've seen it too much to even get offended anymore. 

Well, what can I tell you about this shit?  

Fuck. 

 This story isn't pretty. It’s not some fucking fancy ass drama you used to see on tv.  

Nah bro. 

This shit is dirty. It's gross. Its fucking pathetic on many fucking levels. 

 But… 

So what? 

You’re still sitting here, asking me, and listening to this shit.  

Sigh………….. 

So, I guess I gotta help a bro out and tell you about this piece of shit’s life and how I somehow managed to survive this apocalypse.  

Mmm... I’ll start us off on that lovely morning of what we all have dubbed “D. Day”.  

Appropriate since it has many meanings: Demon’s Day, Doom’s Day, Destruction Day, Dust Day, Dark Day, The day the deed was done, Dun dun dun dunnnnnn day…. And last, but not least, and probably the most accurate for the occasion …. Death Day. 

Yea…  

Don’t forget, ladies and peeps, this is a story about an apocalypse, not a drama or fairytale ending. This story is about 2/3rds of the world’s population dying in a single day. 

 A.

Single. 

Fucking. 

Day. 

The Day of Death.  

D Day. 

I guess that’s where I will start this nonsense. 

Everyone always thinks that living in an apocalyptic world would be so easy.  

I know! I did that shit too.  

That, like movies, humans would somehow find a way to survive and fight against these things: Zombies, disease, aliens… we’d overcome it.  

Yea. 

I’ve seen all the movies, watched all the tv series, read all the comics and novels... but no one really understood what all that actually meant.  

No one could accurately portray the truth of what really happens when shit hits the fan.  

Or I guess I shouldn’t really say that.  

They got a few things right.  

Those stories in tv, books, and what not, are always focused on young, healthy and attractive people. 

Those people are always the ones who survive and become strong in the new world created by the havoc. 

But no one actually tells you about the really young, old, sick, fat and weak people.  

Sure.  

You can guess what happened.  

You can assume they’re always the first to die and no one really sympathizes with them.  

No one really cares about their struggles because everyone always wants to know what happens to the beautiful people.  

They don’t sell out tickets or stores. They don’t get merchandise made after them. 

Sigh…  

Well… 

I’m not one of the beautiful people and this story isn’t as exciting as the shit you see on tv. It’s a whole different ballgame when it’s real life. When it’s your family, your child, your grandparent, your lover and your friend. When it’s not a closely coordinated story to follow one of your favorite actors but happening to you instead... 

It’s fucking terrifying.  

I suppose I should set this scene up for you, since you’re obviously still sitting here listening to me spew this shit. 

Japan.

That's right. I'm abroad. Living in a country that isn't my own with barely passible language skills. Barely.   

It's April 28th, 20XX. Morning. About 10 a.m. 

Spring is coming to an end, but I really wouldn’t know since I am at home in my apartment in Kyoto.  

There I am.  

Yea. That’s me.  

That nice round potato laying on the sofa with the iPad attached to her hands as she reads one of her many favorite web toons about a weak person leveling up in a monster filled world and climbing to the top.  

 Super cliché. (shrugs)  

 What can I say? I enjoy that genre. Anyway… 

 That’s right. 

I’m not some cute 20-something year old girl with a great figure.  

I’m that 30-something-almost-40, overweight otaku, who barely goes outside, and stuffs herself with food until she can’t breathe and immerses herself in a different world because she can’t handle her own.  

Again- super cliché but such is my life.   

So. 

Back to the scene.

That’s me. I’m the tall chick, with tattoos, Silver hair (man-bun style) stuffing her face while reading web toons on my day off from work. 

It was a normal morning.  

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

A normal fucking day. 

I got up early despite staying up late into the early morning and just decided to watch tv (well use it as background noise, if I’m being honest) while I read my web toons.  

I settled on the sofa, threw something on the tv and then proceeded to read whichever had updated that morning. I had a bottle of coke next to me that I had bought the night before and was sipping it even though I hadn’t eaten any breakfast yet. I wasn’t even hungry.  

I had the curtains, that covered my wall of windows, slightly open so that the sun came through just enough to light the room but not enough to be annoying. I had to shoo away the morning pigeons from off my balcony a few times but other than that, it was just another day amongst many.  

The shaking was subtle at first.  

To be honest, I wasn’t even sure I was really feeling it in the beginning. 

I have a tendency to feel like the world is shaking quite often so I always keep a bottle of water near my bed or tv for reference. So if there really is shaking, I would be able to see the water inside move, like those scenes in Jurassic Park.  

I ignored it at first.  

Until I happened to look up and the movement of the water just happened to catch my attention.

I kind of just stared at it.  

Like nah. 

Are my eyes just playing tricks on me now?

Like it was so subtle, I couldn’t actually feel it.  

ME!

The person who felt like the world was constantly in a state of earthquakes (all in my head) couldn’t feel the shaking.  

I grabbed my phone and checked to see if there were alerts that I had missed. Being in Japan, alerts are blasted on your phones to warn of earthquakes or natural disaster happening and there was nothing.  

My Dudes. 

I was seriously confused. 

I tried to search for any record of it on those disaster websites, but nothing was showing up. Even during this whole time, the building was still shaking.  

Five minutes passed. 

Then ten. 

Then thirty. 

An hour or so passed.  

Still no alerts. 

Nothing. 

I checked the news. Live tv and shit. 

Nothing. 

Then… 

The shaking started to get a little stronger.  

My building started to feel kind of like it was in the ocean. Swaying and shit, like waves.  

But… 

I guess what started to freak me out was the fact I couldn’t hear anything.  

You see… 

The last big earthquake I experienced; the sound was so loud that it woke me from a dead sleep. Not the shaking, the sound. 

You know the screeching of metal and concrete moving or the sound of china in the cabinets about to fall from their places, or even just the buzz of vibration…. 

But this...  

This shaking had no sound.  

My building was concrete so you can guess that the sound would be like thunder crashing. 

That’s what I was waiting for.  

But instead, everything was silent.  

It felt as if the very air had been sucked from the room.  Honestly, I couldn’t even hear my own blood pumping in my head. 

I knew and could feel it was pounding but there was no sound.  

I was unable to move.  

It was one of those moments when you know something has gone horribly wrong and every hair on your body stands to attention and your stomach drops and your body starts trembling.  

A coldness kind of envelopes you and sweat trickles down your back, your palms become sweaty, and forehead and upper lip become wet, despite that feeling of being cold.  

You feel as if your bladder will explode that very second, but your body has locked down every muscle and organ, but offers cramps of nausea in its stead. 

The feeling of complete sickness but being unable to do anything about it.  

That flight or fright response but your body can’t even process that much.  

And time seems to stand still.  

Everything becomes crystal clear for that one second that seems to last for eternity.  

But then it starts to move slowly again but you can see everything because your mind has finally realized there is danger and has maxed out to find the problem at warp speed.  

But none of that mattered in that moment.  

The air filled with static electricity-like sensation, tingling across the surface and then… 

CRACK! 

An explosion happened.  

Or... 

At least that is the only word one could call it to describe the sound, but nothing blew up.  

Instead, it was like something had completely been broken even though there was no evidence of just what that could be.  

All of this was merely a feeling. None of this was actually physical.  

Which fucked with our brains like a motherfucker, lemme tell you. 

Time started to move once again and the signals from my brain finally reached my muscles, and I was able to move.  

I fell to floor, gasping for air as if I had somehow been choked but I knew that wasn’t the case. The fear and terror had been so overwhelming that I had unintentionally forgotten how to breath.  

I laid on the floor, breathing heavily, closing my eyes and trying to process everything that happened. I was completely exhausted but my body trembled so hard that all I could do was reach behind me and pull the blanket from my sofa as I curled in a ball on my floor trying to calm down. 

I must have laid there for what seemed like hours but was only half an hour or so before I finally was able to fall asleep, being completely drained and traumatized.  

I awoke with a start.

Again, I can’t explain it, but my senses woke me.

Call it intuition or call it 6th sense.

I woke up in a gasp knowing something was up.  

I immediately reached for my phone just as the emergency service alert chimed in.  

That sound… 

holy fuck… 

 Almost gave me a heart attack from that sound alone.  

I checked the time.

Same day, late Afternoon.

I glanced at the alert message, but it was unlike anything I had ever read.  

I was unsure if my translation had been correct, so I used Google but it turned out to be just as shady as I assumed.  

It basically told everyone to stop what they were doing and get indoors and to lock everything and not move until further notice.  

Like what the fuck, right?  

I finally got up from the floor, stumbling to my window and looked out.  

Everything seemed to be fine. 

I walked out on my balcony and peered around but didn’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary.  

There was nothing burning in the horizon and the sky hadn’t fallen.  

The buildings were fine. 

Everything seemed fine.  

But the hair on my arms rose and I felt like if I didn’t get back inside, I would die. 

 I felt it.  

In my stomach. That gut punch feeling of dread. 

I rushed back into my apartment, locking the balcony door and the window, turning off the lights and closing all the curtains.  

I grabbed my phone and iPad, the emergency bag I had for earthquakes, and locked myself in my bathroom.  

My hands shook as I video called my mom’s number in the states.

She answered immediately.  

I felt relieved to see her face. 

“Mom? You guys ok? Did you guys have anything-“ 

“Oh my god, it happened there too? Yes, we are getting warnings on the tv. Are you ok?”  

“I’m ok, don’t worry. Have you talked to others?”  

“I’m here sister! I’m calling Shelia now and then I’ll call Wayne. Stay on the line with mom.” My younger sister’s face appeared behind my mom’s shoulder and then disappeared again. 

“I’m tellin ya! It’s some alien shit! I knew this was going to happen one day! You guys thought I was crazy! But look at this!” Mom said through the shaking screen that trembled every time she moved around her house doing something as she walked and talked. 

“Was there any sightings or anything like that? The news here isn’t saying anything about aliens…” I grabbed my own supplies of water from the emergency kit, turning on the lantern and letting it light the shower room as I settled into the tub. 

“No, sister, there hasn’t been anything like that and we still don’t know what’s going on, this all just her theories!”  

“Sigh… I get it, well, I can’t blame her for thinking that. Some weird shit just went down. At this point, it could be aliens.”  

We all just stared at each other.

There wasn’t much we could say about the situation without any information, which no one seemed to have. 

For the next hour we all sat on the line trying to keep things light but still afraid to end the call, in case something happened.  

Again, I felt relief when I found my sisters and brother were safe with their children.  

I ended the call and told my family I needed to check on my friends. 

I messaged a few and they all seemed to be fine, everyone trying to figure out what’s going on. 

I went to my iPad and looked for live news.  

Every news site seemed to be telling all of us the same thing.  

 Stay inside until further notice.  

But no one could tell us why.  

There also didn’t seem to be news that anything had been destroyed.  

Nothing strange had appeared anywhere.  

There wasn’t even any news on whether someone had been injured or any deaths.  

It seemed as if the world was holding their breath waiting for the other shoe to finally drop.  

Even sitting in my apartment alone, away from the windows and locked in my small bathroom, a strange fear I couldn’t describe kept crawling up my spine.  

And of course, like in any of those kinds of situations, you can’t help but think about zombies, aliens, or monsters.  

But if that was happening... then I was really going to be fucked.  

I was overweight and barely had any stamina to walk to the store that was a three-minute walk away.  

How could someone like me survive a zombie filled world, where I would have to fight or scrounge for food?  

I lived off delivery!!!  

Yep… I was fucked.  

A full day went by, and nothing seemed to happen. 

Like everyone else, we all just shrugged our shoulders and prepared to move on with our lives. 

But the next morning, the other shoe finally dropped. 

The electricity was the first to go.  

Power all over the world failed at the exact same time and no one could seem to understand how or why. 

All ways of communication were gone.  

No internet, no data, no way to get in touch with anyone. 

That’s when it happened.  

The excruciating pain hit like a tsunami.  

I jerked, convulsing as the pain surged through my body.

Every cell in felt as if it was exploding over and over.  

Like my blood had become lava and was burning me from the inside out.

I only felt pain.  

I couldn’t even tell you how long it lasted as my body twisted, seized and my throat closed so I couldn’t scream.

Eventually the pain was too great that I fainted, only to wake in pain and to faint again.  

 Eternity, that’s what it felt like.  

Every second dragged on.  

Every minute was infinite.  

Time was nothing in those moments.  

It was hell.  

It was every description ever written, ever spoken and ever imagined about what hell would be like.

My entire being was burning in the fire of pain and I couldn’t even tell you how long it went on for.

I can’t even put into words the feeling of enduring it.  

 And hell… well, I learned that I would not wish such a thing on even my worst enemy.  

Eternity went by. 

And finally...

The backness took over and I gave into it.

Doing anything, anything, to escape the burn.